Week 6: Analyzing Memoirs
1). A good memoir draws in a reader, so he or she can discover something new. Can you "see" yourself in either of these stories? If so, what?; If not, why?
I can see myself in both memoirs. I’ve been known to have my fair share of “irrational” fears just like the girl in difficult girl. I wouldn’t say I was afraid of as much as she was but I can definitely relate to the crippling anxiety of it all. In “cousins”, I could 100% relate to the situation. Having extreme battles with family members so much so that you don’t talk for days, months or even years. Both of us way too stubborn to apologize because we both feel like we have nothing to apologize for. I think this memoir drew me in the most.
2). Do these writers over tell their stories? Do they tell or show? Address the description and visualization? Do you need more details?
“Difficult girl” has a lot of details and probably could be considered an “over tell”. There were some instances where I felt like there was a lot of unnecessary details but at the same time some of them seemed important. While reading “cousins” I was able to understand the whole situation at hand with way less details then in “Difficult girl”.
3). Do you get a sense of truth-telling in these two stories?
I do get a sense that each author is telling the truth. I just feel that the emotions conveyed in each memoir was only able to reach the readers because these were things the authors experienced personally.
I think because the cousins story felt so relatable we all somewhat saw ourselves within the story like you said.
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